Recently, significant attention has focused on the hospital environment due to multiple factors, ranging from hospital ratings to patient satisfaction. Hospital noise levels have especially been a focus. One aspect of noise complaints usually focuses on staff members simply being too loud. For example, this occurs when healthcare workers congregate at nursing stations, typically occurring at night, thus causing disruption in patient sleep patterns. Increased noise levels impact the healing process and have been shown to result in worse patient outcomes. Frequently, healthcare workers shout to their colleagues on the medical ward, unaware of the noise they emit and oblivious to the impact on patients. People feel uncomfortable notifying their coworkers that they are simply talking too loud.
Hospitals have been given star ratings that rank the hospitals on a variety of properties, with each section carrying equal weight. The quiet environment of the hospital is deemed so important that it has its own section. Due to elevated noise levels impacting patient healing, along with hospitals striving for high star ratings, novel and innovative ways to address this situation are desired.